


Symbiosis

by koanju (verstehen)



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-28
Updated: 2012-11-28
Packaged: 2017-11-19 18:21:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/576265
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/verstehen/pseuds/koanju
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If there was anything his encounter with his grandfather had taught him, it was that you couldn’t fucking change fate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Symbiosis

**Author's Note:**

  * For [afrikate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/afrikate/gifts).



> With extra special thanks to 1001cranes for the comments and helping me beat this into something that resembles sense.

“I have always loved you,” Audrey told Nathan’s dead body. “I was the one who was supposed to go,” she’d said, and Duke’s heart had clenched. He mostly hated acknowledging he had one but that day had been one for the books. His friend, his oldest friend, had been killed; he’d spent time with the man who was going around killing women and who had abducted Audrey. Then Audrey admitting to Nathan’s body she was leaving and loved Nathan When Audrey couldn’t, or wouldn’t, do the same with Duke. Even in the damn _past_ , Sarah had preferred Nathan.

It was enough to give a guy a complex. So he pulled back. If there was anything his encounter with his grandfather had taught him, it was that you couldn’t fucking change fate.

Duke sucked down his vodka shot and gestured toward Mandy for another. The Grey Gull was full tonight and Mandy had her work cut out for her at the bar but she still took the time to slide him a glass of water and a dirty look instead of his shot. “I could fire you for that,” he muttered.

She just grinned easily at him. “Sure, but you’d lose a lot of business.” Sadly true; Mandy always walked out with the most tips of anyone at the end of the night. He saluted her with his glass of water and stood up, intending to get started walking back to the harbor. Maybe a good night’s sleep could knock him out of his mood.

And typically, because his life was apparently a farce thanks to Haven’s what the fuckery, he bumped right into Audrey. She smiled at him. “Leaving so soon?”

“Noise getting to you?” he asked, ignoring her question. “I don’t usually see you down here often.”

She shifted a little, shoving her hands into her jacket pocket. “Actually, I was looking for you, Duke.”

He gave her his best smile. “Well, here I am!” Duke spread his arms wide, shifting so his body language said ‘open and available.’

Audrey’s faint smile said she didn’t believe it for a minute and she reached out to actually wrap her hand around his wrist. “Come upstairs. I think we need to talk.”

“Something wrong with the apartment? The landlord needs to have a better maintenance man,” he teased. She rolled her eyes and tugged once, gently, before turning away. Audrey obviously expected him to follow. 

Which, given the things he’d done for her since she’d rolled into Haven, probably wasn’t an unreasonable expectation. So he followed her upstairs, swallowing back a sour feeling in his throat as he did, remembering the way his grandfather had followed orders to kill the Troubled. The Crockers were not supposed to be followers like that. Hired killers. He wasn't going to be that for anyone... even if he'd done it for Audrey. So he could at least man up and stop avoiding her for a talk. It was probably about the Colorado Kid or Tommy anyway. For all that Audrey was fantastic with people and used her empathy and compassion to understand the Troubled so well, she was really shit at dealing with her personal life. Duke shook his head a little, amused, as they traveled up the steps to Audrey’s apartment. It was like whatever made Audrey _Audrey_ left no room for her to have any sort of self-awareness or understanding of what she did to the people around her. Or at least made her want to avoid it or ignore it. But Audrey really wasn’t social at all, not the way he remembered Lucy being. She wasn’t friendly and open the way Sarah had seemed either. It was like she saved all her social skills for dealing with the Troubled and turned it off the rest of the time. 

Given what he’d seen of Sarah, though, and the small bits and pieces he remembered of Lucy – god, _Lucy,_ he could only just remember her through a haze, but the feeling of real love, that childish crush, easily came back – showed that she was capable of being more. Audrey was closed off in a way Duke… understood but didn’t at the same time. He’d always been a social person. Even when he and Nathan had gone their separate ways, Duke had tried to keep in touch as much as possible (not that Nathan had appreciated it). Yeah, Duke had been an asshole as a little kid, teasing Nathan, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t liked the guy. 

“So what do you want to talk about?” he asked, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back against the closed door when they made it into Audrey’s apartment.

“You’ve been avoiding me,” she said, pinning him with a harsh look.

Duke sighed. “I’ve been busy, Audrey. My entire life doesn’t revolve around Haven’s Troubled, you know.” He paused, realizing how that sounded and seeing the tightening of her lips. “I’d always come if you called; you know that.”

He was pretty sure she did. That’s why she did it. Because he was reliable – and flexible – in a way Nathan couldn’t be. And because he made an excellent, versatile tool – even if it meant murdering someone.

Duke clenched the hand closest to his body in his flannel shirt when Audrey didn’t say anything. “So did you need something? Are there updates?”

She sighed and moved over to the table to collapse into one of the wooden chairs. “No. Nothing on me, nothing on Tommy. Nothing on The Guard.” She sighed and all of the fight just went out of her. Audrey looked _scared_ and Duke couldn’t help himself. He strode across the room and dropped down to his knees in front of her.

“Hey, we’ll figure it out,” he said, grabbing her wrists.

“I’ve got nine days left, Duke.”

He squeezed gently and rubbed his thumbs up and down along her veins. It was funny how her skin was so light around her wrists, enough he could see the pale blue coloring of it running up her arm. “Exactly. You’ve got nine days left.”

Part of him wanted to say screw it all and just leave Haven. He’d only come back for his father and the promise he’d made to him. Now that Duke knew about the Crockers and why his father had made him come back… There was only one thing really tying him to Haven anymore. Maybe two but Duke had a feeling Nathan wasn’t interested in cooperating. The part of him that wanted to leave, the big part of him, was rooted in the feelings he had for Audrey and the way things had gone down with Nathan. He could manage the Gull just fine out of town. Or hire someone to do it, really. Hell, just give the whole thing to Nathan, though having a real legitimate business was actually useful.

But he was tired of dealing with a woman who got to him as much as Evi did.

Which should have been his warning months ago.

“I’m scared, Duke,” Audrey confessed and it wouldn’t surprise him if this was the first time she was really saying it to anyone. 

He brought up her left wrist to his mouth and kissed it lightly. Then did the same with her right before letting go. Audrey’s lips parted and her eyes dropped to his mouth before skittering away. “You’ve got me, you’ve got Nathan. You’ve got Vince and Dave and Claire and Dwight. Between all of us, we’re pretty smart people. You’re not going anywhere.” He cocked his head to the side and grinned at her. “I’m not going through the hassle of getting another tenant.”

That startled her into a laugh and the tight line of her shoulders dropped into something more relaxed and natural. “Thanks, Duke. For all you’ve done.”

“Hey, what are friends for?” He straightened and made his way over to the cabinet where he knew Audrey kept her wine and beer. He pulled out two Sam Adams for them and grabbed a chair across from her. “Have you talked to Nathan about this at all?”

Audrey shook her head and sipped the beer. “No.”

“Because you’re the strong one in the relationship,” he guessed. He knew that Nathan relied on Audrey a lot more than she really leaned on him and thought maybe it was that dynamic that kept them working together smoothly. 

“That. There's Jordan now too.” Not that Duke thought Nathan was would let Jordan get in the way; it was pretty obvious his -- _their_ \-- priority was Audrey. 

Duke stretched out his legs and shook his head. “You never learned to share when you were a kid, did you?”

Audrey picked at the label on her beer and surprised him by saying, “I’ve never really had much of anyone to share.”

“Weren’t you the one who put the brakes on things?” he asked quietly, setting his beer down.

“Yeah. I’d just been kidnapped and you told me about the Hunter. It was a mess and he didn’t need that.” She looked straight at him, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. “He didn’t need that, Duke, and neither do you.” 

“You don’t get to decide how we feel, Audrey.” He grabbed her wrists again. “Either of us. That should be our choice whether it’s worth it or not. And it’s worth it.”

Audrey pulled back, easily breaking his light grip on her. “It’s my choice too, Duke.” She sighed. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. We’ll figure out how to stop you from disappearing and then you’ll have an entire lifetime to figure things out with me and Nathan.” He smiled at her as easily as he could, put as much conviction and belief into his words as he could. It wasn’t easy for a born cynic. But Audrey needed it right now. “Neither of us is going anywhere.”

It took some time but Audrey eventually nodded and returned his smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Afrikate, I really really really wanted to do an threesome for you but the way they've set up season three made it hard. Instead I sort of tried to at least get the characters on the path to a triangle? Sorry! :(


End file.
